When I first began reading through 1 Peter I went through a million thoughts, from – what the heck am I supposed to preach on from this, none of this sounds fun or exciting and barely makes sense…to …oh wow, there are like 6 sermons in one chapter, am I gonna be one of those people who takes a year to get through one tiny little chapter, cause that kinda bugs me sometimes!

So, I had this whole thing planned for Sunday with a story and a prop and every thing but then we just had too much fun talking and getting to know each other that I never got to it, so I’m saving it/revising it for next week. Plus, now I can write about it here and get some feedback!

So, we’ll start with the verse that stuck out first, 1 Peter 1:7. “These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

That means, that faith is more precious than this…

And, while we’re on the subject of diamonds 🙂

Did you know that the more pressure put on a diamond the more beautiful and precious and strong they are…hmm…maybe God used this logic with people too!

I think He did.

Our FAITH is more precious than anything else when it comes to God’s priorities.

Ooops, sorry God, cause there have definitely been some times when I ranked big pretty jewelry higher than my faith 😦

Ok, back to faith.

Seriously, I can’t even get my head around the fact that God actually cares about our faith. He cares about the state of our belief, the state of our character. Um, excuse me God, but do you know how many people are on the planet? Do you have any idea what else is going on in this world that is about a million times more important then me? Because, in case you weren’t sure, I could get you a newspaper or even an “In Touch” magazine if you need one.

I think that’s the lesson I’ve been learning and called to teach right now. God, for some crazy reason that I will never understand, has CHOSEN me, and you as His kids. He cares about us, about our character and our faith, our belief in Him more than anything else. And this is not even a big sweeping statement He makes about society or the human race as a whole. This is individualized. He cares specifically about each of us and He cares enough to teach us and train us and refine us through individualized, trials that He allows us to go through in order to teach us and better us.

Think about this, when we write Christmas cards to all of our dear friends and families, as wonderful as that is, even those aren’t personalized. We write one letter or take one picture and then send that out. And these cards, which are supposedly for our closest family and friends aren’t individualized. Most of the time, they aren’t even personalized enough that we take the time to sign our names. We have that printed out and copied by some machine.

In contrast, God, who, if he had a Christmas card list would number in the billions personalizes, individualises and hand makes-from scratch – EVERYTHING for us all with the end goal of our Faith and purification, all with our best interest in mind.

I mean, some of my “best” friends don’t even have my “best” interest in mind. And God, the Creator of the Universe does?!! This is just craziness to me!